Colin Edwards Collection
The Freedom
Archives is
honored to contain hundreds of programs on many topics produced by
Colin
Edwards. Colin Edwards (1924–1994) was an outstanding internationalist
journalist and writer who created a huge body of work. Colin came from
Wales
and was a fervent Welsh nationalist. Following service in WW II, he became a combat correspondent in Malaya, then in
Burma, Indochina
and Korea. Later, as an independent journalist with Canadian Broadcasting, the BBC and Pacifica Radio among others. He
did important on-the-scene interviews and documentaries on
anti-imperialist national
liberation struggles in the Middle East, especially Palestine, on Asia,
particularly Vietnam, and on many other struggles, including the civil
rights, Black
Power, and student antiwar movements in the US. Edwards also worked
closely with Moshe Menuhin—a prominent Jewish anti-Zionist (and the
father of
world-famous violinist Yehudi Menuhin).
The interviews with Moshe Menuhin are in the Archives collection, as is
all of the audio work of Colin Edwards, with the exception of
interviews and
writings on Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, which reside in the National
Library of
Wales. The collection was
entrusted to the Freedom Archives by Mary Edwards, his widow, who lives
in
Oakland.
Documents
Interview with Stokely Carmichael - Part 1
Date: 10/29/1966Call Number: CE 044Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsProducers: Colin EdwardsCollection: Colin Edwards Collection
Colin Edwards interviews Carmichael in the SF offices of the Movement Newspaper (Friends of SNCC). In depth about his political development, involvement with SNCC, relationship between white militants and Black Liberation Movement, demands for Black Power, and support for Vietnam's national liberation.
Interview with Stokely Carmichael - Part 2
Date: 10/29/1966Call Number: CE 045Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsProducers: Colin EdwardsCollection: Colin Edwards Collection
Colin Edwards interviews Carmichael in the SF offices of the Movement Newspaper (Friends of SNCC). In depth about his political development, involvement with SNCC, relationship between white militants and Black Liberation Movement, demands for Black Power, and support for Vietnam's national liberation.
Huey Newton interview
Date: 8/30/1970Call Number: CE 055Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsProducers: Colin EdwardsCollection: Colin Edwards Collection
Newton speaks on the politics of the Black Panther Party from inside the Alameda County Jail. Especially significant comments on the Panthers offer to send members to fight with the National Liberation Front of Vietnam against US Imperialism's war; the party is small but has great influence; the US empire will be defeated through developing international solidarity; the BPP is an internationalist party.
Newton also discusses the Soledad Brothers case, George Jackson, the Marin Courthouse Rebellion.
King Reports - April 1968
Date: 4/5/1968Call Number: CE 066Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsProducers: Colin EdwardsCollection: Colin Edwards Collection
1 - Marlon Brando speaks about America's racial crisis, racism and discrimination and why people have a right to self-defense.
2 - Colin commentary on the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr utilizing portions of King's visit to Santa Rita Jail in January 14, 1968 where he supported Joan Baez and draft resisters.
3 - Bay Area Black communities respond to the assassination of Martin Luther King. Colin describes demonstrators in Oakland, San Francisco & Berkeley in the streets and attacks on businesses - also white supremacists driving through the Black community in celebration of the murder. Culminates in a SF City Hall demonstration of over 5000 people including speech of Carlton Goodlett of the Sun Reporter, a recently returned Black Vietnam vet and a high school student.
Martin Luther King - America's Chief Moral Dilemma
Date: 5/17/1967Call Number: CE 069Format: 1/4 3 3/4 ipsProducers: Colin EdwardsCollection: Colin Edwards Collection
Speech given at UC Berkeley on the steps of Sproul Hall. King declares that a revolution of values is needed in order to eliminate America's three great evils of racism, poverty, and the war in Vietnam. Question period follows speech.
Martin Luther King at Santa Rita
Date: 1/14/1968Call Number: CE 096Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsProducers: Colin EdwardsCollection: Colin Edwards Collection
King's speech at a demonstration supporting anti-war
activists imprisoned at the Santa Rita prison. King pleas for an escalation of civil disobedience in 1968 in response to an expanded war in Vietnam.
King responds to rumors attributed to Adam Clayton Powell that King is questioning his commitment to non-violence.
Julius Lester and H. Rap Brown at the Village Theater
SNCC leaders address a New York crowd about Black Power and Vietnam.
Huey Newton on Marin Courthouse Rebellion
Date: 8/11/1970Call Number: CE 098Format: 1/4 3 3/4 ipsProducers: KPFACollection: Colin Edwards Collection
Interviewed six days after his release and just before the funeral of Jonathan Jackson and William Christmas. extensive conversation with Elsa Knight Thompson about the politics of the Black Panther Party and the world situation.
Exerpts from the funeral of Jonathan Jackson and William Christmas with Rev. Earl Neal, Huey Newton and David Hilliard.
Vietnam and the Soviets
Date: 1/1/1973Call Number: CE 288Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsProducers: CBSProgram: America and the WorldCollection: Colin Edwards Collection
CBS program about the unpopularity of the Vietnam War, the anti-communist and pro-US government in South Vietnam, and the offensive of the NLF.
Razavi The Revolutionary
Date: 1/1/1968Call Number: CE 384Format: 1/4 7 1/2 ipsProducers: Collin EdwardsCollection: Colin Edwards Collection
Colin Edwards interviews Jahangit “Haj” Razavi, who is charged with being connected to activists conspiring to plant bombs in the Bay Area.
Haj worked with grassroots street movements in Berkeley that challenged the power structure within the US, and was arrested for assaulting a police officer and possession of drugs. He was violently assaulted by the police. He was re-arrested and charged with being a fugitive while traveling. Before trial newspapers falsely connected him to a bomb plot .
Haj asserts that his arrest is part of a government strategy to criminalize activists as “extremists,” particularly the Black Panther Party.
In Berkeley Haj formed
the Tricontinental Student Committee with other foreign students in order to encourage
student activism among foreign students in this country and to give full support and assistance to liberation struggles in the third world and to the National Liberation Front of Vietnam. He also helped form the Iranian Student Association.
